Ribbon harness type contact spring assembly for relays



March 8, 1966 E. ROBACK 3,239,639

RIBBON HARNESS TYPE CONTACT SPRING ASSEMBLY FOR RELAYS Filed Jan. 27, 1964 P757262. mm

1% z/en for: Edward L. Fobacv? United States Patent Ofiice 3,239,639 RIBBON HARNESS TYPE CONTACT SPRING ASSEMBLY FOR RELAYS Edward L. Roback, New Lemon, 1., assignor to Phillips- Eckardt Electronic Corporation, Joiiet, 11]., a corporation of Illinois Filed Jan. 27, 1964, Ser. No. 340,417 6 Claims. (Cl. 200--166) This invention relates to a compact contact spring assembly for relays wherein a plurality of ribbon harnesses have side-by-side contact springs sandwiched between or imbedded in insulating material, and reinforcing means is provided for an assembly comprising a plurality of such ribbon harnesses in stacked relation to form the transfer and stationary contact springs for a relay.

One object of the invention is to provide a ribbon harness type of contact spring assembly which may be substituted for the usual assembly of alternately arranged bare contact springs and insulators used as a contact spring assembly for relays.

Another object is to provide such an assembly which can be utilized in connection with either the bonded type or the printed wiring type of ribbon harness, the arrangement being such that a compact contact spring assembly is provided when compared with the usual type.

Another object is to provide ribbon harnesses in stacked relation to serve as a contact spring assembly for relays and the like in which contact means is provided on adjacent ribbon harnesses for coaction. with each other upon circuit making operations and wherein the insulating material terminates short of the contact means so as to permit the proper circuit controlling operations thereof.

A further object is to provide a contact spring assembly for relays utilizing ribbon harnesses which in addition to serving as contact springs may extend in the form of a flat cable to remote points for connection to terminals or the like at such points, thus eliminating the necessity of a circuit cable between the contact springs of the relay and such terminals, and eliminating the necessary soldered connections of such cable to the contact springs, and/ or terminals.

Still a further object is to provide a convenient arrangement for plug-in connection of jacks to the ribbon harnesses by providing plugs formed of reinforcing elements and terminal ends of the contact springs folded around them thus providing for convenience of elec circuit connections wherever suitable instead of soldered connections.

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of my ribbon type harness contact spring assembly for relays, whereby the objects above contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims and illustrated in detail on the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a relay including my contact spring assembly;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation thereof showing the parts in normal position;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to a portion of FIG. 2 showing the parts of the relay in coil-energized position;

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view on the line 44 of FIG. 2 showing reinforcing means for a plurality of ribbon harnesses used as a contact spring assembly;

FIG. 5 is a similar View showing a modified construction of reinforcing means;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional view on the line 66 Patented Mar. 8, 1966 of FIG. 2 showing a contact spring arrangement;

FIG. 7 is a plan view thereof;

FIG. 8 is a view similar to a portion of FIG. 2 showing a modification in which the contact springs also serve as plugs with respect to jacks connected with electric circuits;

FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional view on the line 9-9 of FIG. 2 to show the cooperation of the armature of the relay with the transfer springs of the relay for actuating them with respect to the stationary contact springs thereof, and

FIG. 10 is a view similar to FIG. 8 showing a modification in which the contact springs also serve as terminal ends to which circuit wires can be soldered in the usual manner, and also illustrate dual metal contact springs.

On the acompanying drawing I have used the reference numerals 10, 12 and 14 to indicate ribbon harnesses, 16 and 18 to indicate stationary contact springs and 2t) to indicate transfer contact springs. Each ribbon harness comprises its respective series of side-byside springs 16, 18 and 2t) imbedded in flexible insulating material 22 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the springs 16 and 2% being preferably round spring wire and the springs 18 being in the form of fiat or leaf spring wire. However, all can be round or flat if desired.

Ribbon harnesses are well known in the art comprising stranded copper wire, solid copper wire, fiat copper strips and the like imbedded in a tape of insulating material. In this way a great number of conductors can be arranged side by side and properly insulated from each other, and the ribbon harness used as a fiat cable between various electrical connections. The insulating material 22 may be silicone rubber, other types of rubbet or plastic material such as vinyl, KelF, Teflon or polyethyls, either opaque or translucent. Beryllium-copper, nickel-silver, Phosphor-bronze or the like may be used as the springs 16, 18 and 20 in place of the stranded copper wire in. the usual ribbon harness.

The ribbon harnesses 10, 12 and 14 may be formed by extruding the insulating material 22 around the wires 16 and 13 and the leaf springs or strips 28, or by bonding sheets of insulating material on opposite sides of the wires and strips. In the case of fiat elements (such as the spring 20 are illustrated) they may be screened and etched while bonded to one sheet of flexible plastic by the well known printed wiring technique and then another sheet of flexible insulating material is bonded over them. The flexibility or ductility of the ribbon harnesses consists of the metal portion as well as the insulating materialportion, the proportions of which can be varied along the harness length by changing the relative thicknesses as Well as the basic compositions to achieve a desired stiffness for the relay springs a desired ductility for the terminal ends or the wiring cable cle litending from the relay to terminal connections or the A plurality of my ribbon harnesses is reinforced as by positioning them spaced apart and then molding them in a reinforcing and mounting block 24 of hard plastic, hard rubber, epoxy or the like which block may then be mounted on a relay frame 26 as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4.

The coil of the relay is shown at 28 and the armature thereof at 30. The block 24 is mounted on the frame 26 as by four screws 32, a metal plate 34 being provided under the heads of the screws. The coil terminals are shown at 36. The armature 30 is pivoted at 38 in the usual way and has side arms 40 carrying a transfer spring actuator 42 in the form of a cross member between the ribbon harnesses 12 and 14 as shown in FIG. 9.

The insulation 22 is stripped as by the use of solvents or mechanically from the right-hand ends of the contact springs 16, 18 and 29 as shown in FIG. 2 and the springs (which are normally straight) are suitably bent as illustrated for contact purposes, the springs 18, for instance, being bent upwardly as shown in FIG. 2 to contact the springs 20 with predetermined contact pressure, and the springs 16 being bent downwardly to be engaged by the springs 20 with predetermined pressure when the armature 30 is attracted by energization of the relay coil 28 as well known in the art. The springs 18 and 20 constitute normally closed contacts whereas the springs 16 and 2t constitute normally closed contacts whereas the springs 16 and 20 constitute normally open contacts as illustrated in the drawing which, of course, may be reversed if desired, and instead of three sets of springs many more can be operated by the same relay coil by stacking up additional ribbon harnesses molded in thicker reinforcing blocks 24, or the stack of harnesses may be reinforced as alternatively shown in FIG. 5, with a plate 44 interposed between the ribbon harness 12 and the relay frame 26 and spacers 46 interposed between the rest of the ribbon harnesses. The elements 44 and 46 may be of metal or insulating material as desired and are used to clamp the ribbon harnesses by means of the screws 32 which serve to clamp all the parts of the assembly together.

In FIG. 1 the ribbon harness 10 is shown extending an indeterminate length in a left-hand direction from the relay (shown by a break in the insulating material 22) and this length may be whatever necessary to connect with remote terminals or the like. Thus the ribbon harnesses not only serve as contact springs for the relay but as a cable extending to such remote terminals where the wires 16 may be soldered or otherwise electrically connected. The ribbon harnesses 12 and 14 may likewise extend to remote points. At such remote points the wires 16 and 18 and the strips 20 may be spread apart as required for such connections. When using printed wiring techniques the spacing can be accomplished by printing and etching the conductors in the desired pattern.

The ductility of this cable length can be increased by varying the respective thickness of the metal versus the insulating material, or by composition change. The composition change could have, for example, a plastic coated spring end while the cable length could be silicone rubber. The metal portion could be beryllium-copper while the cable portion could be copper or brass. Metal thickness, of course, is directly dependent upon current carrying capacity desired.

Of course, the left-hand ends of the ribbon harnesses may end closely adjacent the reinforcing block 24 and soldered connections to circuit wires made at this point as shown in FIG. 10. The contact springs 16, 18 and 2d are shown as having terminal ends 54 which may be perforated for soldering circuit wires 53 thereto in the usual manner. Dual metal wires and strips can also be used in my relay spring construction. Metals of this type are available in which two strips of different metal are bonded or welded edge-to-edge and they can then be cut laterally into strips, or in the case of printed wiring can be etched to provide separate strips whereas in the case of wires two diiferent metals can be welded end-to-end before being imbedded in the insulating material 2.2. This is illustrated by the portions 56 of the springs being of spring metal and the portions 58 of ductile metal. The spring portions 56 can comprise beryllium-copper, Phosphor-bronze or the like while the ductile portions 53 could be composed of copper or brass which metals are more ductile.

Another arrangement is shown in FIG. 8 wherein the marginal ends of the elements 16, 18 and 20 may be doubled back and folded around reinforcing strips of insulation 48 so as to form plugs with which jacks 59 may coact, the jacks being connected to circuit wires 52. One strip 48 extends throughout the width of the harness ribbon and provides reinforcement for the doubled back ends of the wires 16. Two other strips 4-8 reinforce the doubled back ends of the wires 18 and the strips 20 to form an in- 4 dividual jack for each element. Thus the terminal ends of the contactsprings constitute plugs cooperable with the jacks 50 which are connected with circuit wires.

In operation, the relay shown in FIG. 2 has the contacts 18 and 20 normally closed and the contacts in and it"! normally open. Upon energization of the coil 23 the armature 30 is attracted for lifting the transfer spring actuator 42 to the position of FIG. 3 which bends the portion of the ribbon harness 14 extending from the right side of the reinforcing block 24 upwardly so that the circuits are broken across 18 and 2t) and made across 16 and 20. Where additional ribbon harnesses are provided in the stack, additional transfer spring actuators 42 may be provided on the armature arms it) in an obvious manner.

If desired the portions of the wires 16 and 18 and the leaf springs 20 which contact with each other during oper ation of the relay may be plated with silver and/ or other precious metals or the like or provided with welded-on contacts for better contact action.

From the foregoing description it will be obvious that I have provided a contact spring assembly for relays which eliminates costly wiring as when the wires must be soldered to conventional relay springs. A greater number of relay contacts for a given volume is possible because the circuit carrying elements of the ribbon harnesses may be closely but accurately spaced. Uniformity in the manufacture of the wiring harnesses controlled by varying the composition and/or thickness of the metal portion with respect to the insulating portion reduces armature loading which thus increases relay sensitivity. My construction allows a relay spring pile-up to be fabricated, assembled and adjusted separately from the rest of the relay and the disclosed assembly reduces the amount of handling of individual parts. My construction also eliminates the assembly problems of the usual type of relay.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of my ribbon type harness contact spring assembly for relays without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may reasonably be included within their scope.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a contact spring assembly for relays, a plurality of ribbon harnesses each comprising a series of side-byside contact springs imbedded in flexible insulating material, a single reinforcing means for an assembly which comprises a plurality of said ribbon harnesses in stacked relation, some to serve as transfer contact springs and some to serve as stationary contact springs, said reinforcing means holding certain portions of said stacked ribbon harnesses spaced apart and in fixed relation to each other, said transfer contact springs being aligned with said stationary contact springs for circuit making and breaking operationsupon movement of portions of said transfer contact springs extending beyond said reinforcing means toward and away from said stationary contact springs, said transfer contact springs being adapted for actuation by the armature of a relay on which said reinforcing means is mounted.

2. A contact spring assembly according to claim 1 wherein said transfer and stationary contact springs are provided with contact means to coact with each other upon circuit making operations, said insulating material of said ribbon harnesses terminating short of said contact means.

3. A contact spring assembly according to claim 1 wherein said transfer springs are fiat and said stationary springs are round for line contact of the latter with the former at any position laterally thereof.

4. A contact spring assembly according to claim 1 wherein said ribbon harnesses terminate adjacent said reinforcing means and beyond the end thereof opposite 0 the circuit making and breaking portions of said contact and breaking portions of spring metal and circuit consprings with the terminal ends of the contact springs connecting portions of ductile metal.

stituting a plug for each contact spring received within a jack connected to a circuit wire. References Cited by the Examiner 5. A contact spring assembly according to claim 4 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS wherein the plugs for one ribbon harness each comprises 3,004,237 10/ 1961 Cole et a1 339-17 X a reinforcing element and a marginal end of the contact 3,107,197 10/1963 Stein et al. 174-117 X spring folded around said reinforcing element.

6. A contact spring assembly according to claim 1 KATHLEEN CLAFFY P'lmary Examiner wherein said contact springs have both contact making 10 BERNARD GILHEANY, Examiner- 

1. IN A CONTACT SPRING ASSEMBLY FOR RELAYS, A PLURALITY OF RIBBON HARNESSES EACH COMPRISING A SERIES OF SIDE-BY-SIDE CONTACT SPRINGS IMBEDDED IN FLEXIBLE INSULATING MATERIAL, A SINGLE REINFORCING MEANS FOR AN ASSEMBLY WHICH COMPRISES A PLURALITY OF SAID RIBBON HARNESSES IN STACKED RELATION, SOME TO SERVE AS TRANSFER CONTACT SPRINGS AND SOME TO SERVE AS STATIONARY CONTACT SPRINGS, SAID REINFORCING MEANS HOLDING CERTAIN PORTIONS OF SAID STACKED RIBBON HARNESSES SPACED APART AND IN FIXED RELATION TO EACH OTHER, SAID TRANSFER CONTACT SPRING BEING ALIGNED WITH SAID STATIONARY CONTACT SPRINGS FOR CIRCUIT MAKING AND BREAKING OPERATIONS UPON MOVEMENT OF PORTIONS OF SAID TRANSFER CONTACT SPRINGS EXTENDING BEYOND SAID REINFORCING MEANS TOWARD AND AWAY FROM SAID STATIONARY CONTACT SPRINGS, SAID TRANSFER CONTACT SPRINGS BEING ADAPTED FOR ACTUATION BY THE ARMATURE OF A RELAY ON WHICH SAID REINFORCING MEANS IS MOUNTED. 